High Cheese

When I started covering the Phillies beat three years ago, I never thought I would be using the words "luxury tax" when analyzing the payroll. But the Phillies have joined baseball's financial big boys, as evidenced by the record salary number they will dole out this season.

This year's magic figure: $167.657 million.

That leaves the Phillies roughly $10 million shy of the $178 million threshold, after which teams are taxed on the money they spend.

Our Phillies payroll number is not official. Major League Baseball calculates payroll using the average annual value of each contract, while the number we have listed above is the sum of each player's base salary and bonuses that he will receive this season.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Phillies are in the sport's spending stratosphere. Since 2008, the payroll has increased by about 70.6 percent. During that same time period, attendance has only grown 21.5 percent.

Without further ado, here is the unofficial official breakdown (numbers in millions):

Position

Player

2011 Salary

1B

Ryan Howard

20.0

SP

Roy Halladay

20.0

SP

Roy Oswalt

16.0

2B

Chase Utley

15.0

LF

Raul Ibanez

11.5

RP

Brad Lidge

11.5

SP

Cliff Lee

11.0

SP

Cole Hamels

9.5

SP

Joe Blanton

8.5

SS

Jimmy Rollins

8.5

3B

Placido Polanco

7.5

CF

Shane Victorino

7.5

RP

Ryan Madson

4.5

C

Carlos Ruiz

2.75

RP

Danys Baez

2.75

RP

Jose Contreras

2.5

RP

Kyle Kendrick

2.45

OF/1B

Ross Gload

1.6

C

Brian Schneider

1.5

RP

J.C. Romero

1.35

OF

Ben Francisco

1.175

UTIL

Pete Orr

.600

UTIL

Wilson Valdez

.460

RP

David Herndon

.425

RP

Antonio Bastardo

.419

OF

John Mayberry Jr.

.414

UTIL

Michael Martinez

.414

TOTAL

27 players

$167.657

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